Tech Watch: Oculus Rift

By Vanessa ButlerAugust 2, 2012

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We're one step closer to at home virtual reality gaming thanks to the Oculus Rift.

Remember when Nintendo’s Virtual Boy came out and you thought it was going to completely change the way you gamed so you begged your mom (or your boss) for an advance on your allowance (or salary), and then once you finally got one it was like playing Mario with infrared goggles on? The guys over at Oculus must have the same childhood memory because they’ve taken it upon themselves to create a virtual-reality headset for video games called the “Oculus Rift”; its Kickstarter campaign came and went, securing its goal price in four and a half hours.

Once the Rift is on the market, gamers can take advantage of an entirely new gaming experience, with stereoscopic 3D displayed in a field of view spanning 110 degrees diagonally so the end of the screen won’t take you out of your experience. “We’ve already gotten great feedback from the press and buy-in from major game developers including id Software, Epic, Unity and Valve,” founder Palmer Luckey said. “We know the gaming community will be as excited as we all are when they get their hands on it.”

While photos they’ve released are renderings of the prototype and in no way represent what the final product (or developer kit that ships from Kickstarter) will look like, with many major gaming companies backing the project it’s hard not to get one’s hopes up that the future of virtual-reality gaming is finally here.